Life

The son of John Pendarves of Crowan

Crowan

Crowan is a village and civil parish in Cornwall, United Kingdom. It is situated approximately three-and-a-half miles south of Camborne. The River Hayle rises near Crowan and flows through the village and the railway branch to Helston passed nearby. Crowan has a population of 2,375...

 in Cornwall

Cornwall

Cornwall is a unitary authority and ceremonial county of England, within the United Kingdom. It is bordered to the north and west by the Celtic Sea, to the south by the English Channel, and to the east by the county of Devon, over the River Tamar. Cornwall has a population of , and covers an area of...

, John Pendarves was born at Skewes in that parish. He was admitted a servitor of Exeter College, Oxford

Exeter College, Oxford

Exeter College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England and the fourth oldest college of the University. The main entrance is on the east side of Turl Street...

, on 11 December 1637. He matriculated on 9 February 1638, on the same day as his elder brother, Ralph Pendarves, and became a competent disputant. He graduated B.A. on 3 March 1642, and took his name off the college books on 14 July 1642.

For a time he was the parish lecturer of Wantage

Wantage

Wantage is a market town and civil parish in the Vale of the White Horse, Oxfordshire, England. The town is on Letcombe Brook, about south-west of Abingdon and a similar distance west of Didcot....

 in Berkshire

Berkshire

Berkshire is a historic county in the South of England. It is also often referred to as the Royal County of Berkshire because of the presence of the royal residence of Windsor Castle in the county; this usage, which dates to the 19th century at least, was recognised by the Queen in 1957, and...

, but after several changes he became a defiant Baptist

Baptist

Baptists comprise a group of Christian denominations and churches that subscribe to a doctrine that baptism should be performed only for professing believers , and that it must be done by immersion...

 minister of a congregation at Abingdon

Abingdon

Abingdon may refer to the following places:In Australia :* Abingdon, Queensland, a place in Northern QueenslandIn Britain:*Abingdon, Oxfordshire**Abingdon School**Abingdon Abbey**Abingdon Lock**Abingdon Bridge**Abingdon Air & Country Show...

. He challenged orthodox clergy to public debate, and Jasper Mayne

Jasper Mayne

Jasper Mayne was an English clergyman, translator, and a minor poet and dramatist.Mayne was baptized at Hatherleigh, Devon, on 23 November 1604, and educated at Westminster School and Christ Church, Oxford...

 undertook to meet him, in the church of Watlington

Watlington

Watlington could be*Watlington, Norfolk, England*Watlington, Oxfordshire, England*Whatlington, Sussex, England*Watlington, New Zealand...

, Oxfordshire

Oxfordshire

Oxfordshire is a county in the South East region of England, bordering on Warwickshire and Northamptonshire , Buckinghamshire , Berkshire , Wiltshire and Gloucestershire ....

. A well-attended discussion ended without any definite result. The eighth article brought against Edward Pocock, when he was cited in 1655 to appear before the commissioners for ejecting ignorant and scandalous ministers, was that he had refused to allow Pendarves to preach in his pulpit at Childrey

Childrey

Childrey is a village and civil parish about west of Wantage in the Vale of White Horse. The parish was part of the Wantage Rural District in Berkshire until the 1974 boundary changes transferred the whole of the Vale of White Horse from Berkshire to Oxfordshire.Childrey was originally an island...

.

Death

At the beginning of September 1656 Pendarves died in London. His body was carried by water to Abingdon in a chest; it arrived there on Saturday, 27 September and three days later was conveyed to a piece of ground at the west end of the town that had been purchased as a burial-place for his congregation. Crowds came from neighbouring villages, and spent the preceding and succeeding days in religious exercises; but on 2 October Major-general Bridges sent fifty horse soldiers from Wallingford to dissolve the meetings.

Works

Pendarves was a Fifth Monarchy man, and in 1656 issued a volume called ‘Arrowes against Babylon,’ in which he attacked the churches of Rome and England, attempted to reform the apparel of the saints, and addressed certain queries to the Quakers, accusing them of concealing their beliefs, and of contemning christian pastors, yet preaching themselves. The first part of this treatise was answered by the Rev. William Ley of Wantage, the Rev. John Tickell, and the Rev. Christian Fowler

Christopher Fowler (minister)

-Life:He was the son of John Fowler, and was born at Marlborough, Wiltshire, about 1610. He entered Magdalen College, Oxford, as a servitor in 1627, and graduated B.A. on 9 February 1632. Moving to St. Edmund Hall, he graduated M.A. on 29 October 1634. To John Prideaux he owed a strong attachment...

 of St. Mary's, Reading. The Quakers were championed by James Naylor and Denys Hollister. In the same year Pendarves joined four other dissenting ministers in preparing an address to their congregations, entitled ‘Sighs for Sion,’ and with Christopher Feake

Christopher Feake

Christopher Feake was an English Independent minister and Fifth-monarchy man. He was imprisoned for maligning Oliver Cromwell in his preaching. He is a leading example of someone sharing both Leveller views and the millenarian approach of the Fifth Monarchists...

 he composed prefaces for an anonymous pamphlet on ‘The Prophets Malachy and Isaiah prophecying.’

A sermon which Pendarves had preached in Petty France, London

Petty France, London

Petty France refers to several places in London and Westminster.It usually refers to a street in the City of Westminster, London, "a considerable street between Tathill Street, E., and James Street, W " The street was the original location in 1720 of the Westminster Public Infirmary...

, on 10 June 1656, was published after his death by John Cox.